


A Storm That Took Everything

by lilkabocha



Category: The Expanse (TV), The Expanse Series - James S. A. Corey
Genre: Crash Landing, Cute Banter, Desperate Circumstances, Drummer buys her a drink at the end, F/F, Gen, I Ship It, Love Confessions, Naomi hacking, New Planets, Stuck on planet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-10 23:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16464062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilkabocha/pseuds/lilkabocha
Summary: Naomi crash lands on a moon made of protomolecule, only Drummer is available to help her work through this.





	A Storm That Took Everything

“What is it Naomi? I’m busy. In a meeting, Belta supply chain plan for Delta ring.” It was noisy in the background of the bar on Naroo, the tiny station inside the bubble acting as a service point for the inners and belters surveying the rings.

 

Naomi lunged to the video screen like she was gasping for air, “I’m freaking out Drummer. I tried beaming Holden – “

 

“– So I’m your last choice as usual,” Drummer said dryly.

 

A desperate intensity shined from her eyes, “The Roci’s in a tangential ring, beam won’t route. Miller told Holden to leave me behind.”

 

Drummer was staring off, not paying attention, “Right OK, I’m working Naomi-!”

 

“I’ll die here,” her stomach shivered at the thought. Drummer looked up.

 

Naomi gravely backed away from the camera, a blue tint washed over the video feed. The inside of the skiff’s cockpit was filling with protomolecule, veining its way into the walls, ceiling, circuits, screens.

 

“ _Kaka_ hell _,”_ Drummer choked and ducked away from the table into a quiet corner of the bar.

 

Naomi spiraled, lost in fog, “I was bored. You were busy. Nobody goes to Gamma – I got curious. A moon made of proto pulled my ship in real fast --- heavy gravity wala like a black hole; I’ve sunk into the moon.

My ship doesn’t work, I’ve tried everything, _everything_ , I’m going to die.

I want to see your face before I go…”

 

“ _Naomi_. You’re beltalowda, you do-not-give-up.” Drummer said with a confidence she saved for her most fiery speeches, skillfully hiding the concern in her eyes.

 

“But the protomolecule changed the hardware, it’s mixed itself into my ship, I’m locked out of the console –”

 

“The hell is that?” Drummer cut her off, pointed to something pooling forward from the blue glow. Naomi spun to her side, the empty co-pilot seat was filling up with a human form made of protomolecule, like a balloon animal. It turned it’s head toward her.

 

Her heart rammed against her throat as she reflexively clawed toward the port side of the skiff. The proto-being clawed at the starboard side, mirroring her actions.

 

“It looks just like you...” Drummer quivered.

 

Naomi didn’t dare blink, her muscles tense in cortisol fueled fear. She struggled to hold up her hand under the intense gravity and slowly waved. The being matched her movements.

 

“Something’s happening,” Naomi said. The being’s blue form vibrated to a blood red color. “She’s dying.” The being melted away, before a perfect duplicate being, blue again, reformed in the same position, mirroring Naomi balled up.

 

“Fucking hell.” Drummer said.

 

“Wait wait, this is weird.” Naomi’s engineering mind was spinning. Seeing Drummer next to her helped her keep calm too. “Let me try something.”

 

She moved to the flight console and initiated flight sequence, the avatar did the same. She tapped engage, but the being rippled red again. When it melted this time, more protomolecule flooded in from the ship’s walls.

 

“It’s punishing me for messing up.”

 

With the next proto-being iteration, she held up the hand terminal she was calling Drummer on. The avatar held up a hand terminal made of protomolecule.

 

“Let me try multi-casting a beam, run a packet analyzer,” Naomi mumbled, ruffling her nose. Drummer was quietly focused on Naomi, she knew that the engineer didn’t like to be disturbed when diving deep. It’s cute, she thought.

 

“ _init: test._ ” Naomi broadcasted to all devices in the area.

 

“�¦Î<)å�"Ê:; �[�\?q¸�Ø)Û��9Í�.�§” the avatar replied.

 

“Shit this thing actually replied, I can interface with it, but shit...what’s it encoded in...not UTF...how can I even read it…I’ll check the .pcap captures...right so it’s on the local network...I’ve got the ipv512 address.” She copied the avatar’s message and sent it back.

 

“´Í¤�ÍJ¨ AJ�_>Ü�)�Þ4�qf0³Ì” the avatar replied before flashing red, melting and reforming, poruing even more protomolecule into the ship.

 

The pooling proto was nearly touching Naomi’s boots now.

 

“I’ll die if I mess this up again,” she said, panic itching her eyes.

 

“I believe in you, you’re the best engineer, best problem solver in all the rings” Drummer said, biting her lip nervously.

 

Naomi stared calmly into Drummer’s eyes, breathed in deeply. “Maybe the melting and reforming is a system restart, maybe I can intercept the boot program before it fully reforms.”

 

“Maybe I can take you for a drink when you’re back safe,” Drummer smirked. She believed in her, she had more confidence in her than Naomi had in herself, “you can do this.”

 

She set a ping running on the ipv512 address of the avatar and forced the avatar to reboot. Now she waited, as the body reformed, checking the ping program.

 

_ping: cannot resolve: Unknown host_

_ping: cannot resolve: Unknown host_

 

The pooling protomolecule was climbing up her ankles.

 

_ping: cannot resolve: Unknown host_

_64 bytes from host: icmp_seq=0 ttl=120 time=0.366 ms_

 

“Now!” Naomi screamed with desperation for her life. For Drummer. “I fired the intercept request.”

 

The new protobody froze, the proto below her stopped rising. A quiet beat, a brief sigh of relief, her hand terminal popped up a new message from the avatar:

 

“�”

 

“I have no idea what I’m doing, so I’ll do what I do with any bricked belta hardware that won’t comply, JTAG and flash new firmware,” Naomi said with a nerdy glee.

 

“How cool it’d be if you could command-and-control that moon,” Drummer smiled.

 

Naomi beamed the skiff’s pilot firmware to the avatar. A long pause, the half formed avatar flashed yellow and dissolved with the protomolecule pool, like an engine valve flushing coolant.

 

“It actually worked...” Naomi stared blankly, stunned in disbelief with a bit of a high from the excitement.  “I’m getting the hello out of here!”

 

“Perfection” Drummer said.

 

Naomi cautiously reached for the controls, the gravity felt lighter now, it was easier to move, the skiff easily took off. “I’m coming back, and I’m taking you up on the drink,” Naomi smiled.

 

“Just get back here safe now.”

 

Naomi wasn’t even thinking about Holden as she broke past the gamma ring back into the hub. Maybe she should send a message, maybe after that drink.

**Author's Note:**

> To my qin ai who inspired this story :)


End file.
